Update 11/15/04: Polls have opened here and here, so you can vote (until 11/21), but you can't submit any new entries! -Erik

Can you fool the world? Or maybe just some of the people some of the time? The November contest will test your powers of deception, and will be one of the few times we encourage people to put one over their neighbors.

Twice now, we've had successful (?) April Fool's jokes that involved a fake screenshot of DROD. The first Matt conned a bunch of chumpies to think we had Beethro out in space. Of course, the joke is on him now that we have DRODIS. Matt II and Matt III collaborated on another sham screenshot which was disappointingly much better than what we were actually producing for JtRH. The lesson here is trust nobody named "Matt". Also be wary of anyone who goes by "Matthias" or "Maximoto".

For this contest, you must produce one or more fake screenshots of DROD. Your goal is not to make the most impressive or best-looking screenshot, but the one that, by your best guess, approaches what the actual screenshots of DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold will look like.

The Ten Commandments

1. Anyone on the Caravel team, who has been involved in testing, or otherwise had opportunity to see what DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold looks like is ineligible to enter the contest or vote in it.

2. To make an entry, you can use graphics from released versions of DROD, your own drawings, or from sources which grant permission for their use such as public domain art collections. You may not use images, in whole or in part, that are copyright-protected without permission to use them. If an image doesn't explicitly say it is public domain, you must assume it is copyrighted. If a license is not granted to use the copyrighted image, you must assume that permission is needed to legally use it. I encourage you to contact the webmaster or copyrightholder in this case and ask for permission to use the image.

3. You may enter one or more screenshots by sending them to erikh@caravelgames.net. Screenshots may be in png, gif, bmp, or jpg format. Send one screenshot per e-mail message and in the subject give an identifying name for the screenshot, i.e. "Screenshot #1".

4. Up until voting begins, you may replace any screenshot with a more recent version, by sending another e-mail with attached updated version and a subject that has the same identifying name as the previous screenshot that will be replaced. (I'm trying to cut down on work and mistakes managing revisions.)

5. Voting begins 11/15. Voters will be asked to rate each entry on a scale of 1 to 10 based on how likely the entry is to represent the unreleased DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold.

6. We may or may not add real JtRH screenshots as fake entries. A second poll will ask which screenshots does the voter think are real? Multiple entries may be checked or none at all for the vote.

7. Entrants should not reveal or speculate upon who authored images. Anonymity is an important aspect of the contest. To avoid any grey areas here, anybody who reveals or speculates on authorship is disqualified.

8. Discussion about what may be present in JtRH is encouraged, up until the polls open, as long as those who already know keep their mouths shut. Once polls open, please don't discuss which screenshots appear to be real or fake, and try to minimize your speculation on what features will be present in JtRH. This is so that the voting isn't turned into a landslide by some last-minute piece of obscure information somebody dug up.

9. Authors are obliged to rate their screenshots as "10" in the first poll and as "real" in the second poll.

10. Both polls close on 11/21. After polls close, entrants may reveal which screenshots they authored if they wish.

Prizes

Whoever has the highest-rated screenshot gets first prize of 100 rank points and either a free copy of DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold or an item from the DROD Store. The runner-up gets second prize of 50 rank points. And the author of the third-highest-rated screenshot gets 25 rank points.

The first-prize winner can't sweep second or third prizes, though. Likewise, the second-prize winner can't sweep third place. If you win one prize, your other entries are removed from evaluation for other prizes to give other entrants a chance to win.

First-time contest entrants get a "Rookie bonus" of 10 rank points. Hey, this means new people can throw just about any crummy thing together and get plus-tenned!

The second "Which screenshots are real?" poll gives all entrants another chance to pick up some rank points. For each vote in excess of one on each entry, authors will receive five rank points. So the more people you fool, the more rank you collect.

The Real Screenshots

The real screenshots of DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold will be generated from my old Lite Brite. But I ran out of pink pegs, so I can't finish them just yet. I spent all day yesterday checking out thrift stores, but I found nada. This weekend I'll hit the garage sales hard and maybe score some more pink pegs. Also, gotta find something better than "American Folk Songs" to play on the phonograph that is hooked into the Lite Brite so I can get better in-game music. Getting sick of hearing "Mr. Froggy went a'courting" on level two over and over again.

-Erik

[Edited by ErikH2000 at Local Time:11-04-2004 at 04:40 PM: Changes to #8.]

[Edited by ErikH2000 at Local Time:11-15-2004 at 09:27 PM]

[Edited by ErikH2000 at Local Time:11-16-2004 at 05:20 AM: Changed URL to point to new poll.]

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ďFolks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.Ē

quote:Tim wrote:
Let's assume that I do not know anything about the screen in the new DROD, is there anything one need to adhere to?

Size of the picture (640x480)?
Is it still 38x32?
Is the rest of the layout of the screen the same?

You have to figure these things out from reading old posts, asking other forum members, or just guessing. And you could make up some stuff too, I think. There won't be any authoritative answers unless maybe Crampy leaks something. Which is why I have my hand at the ready to Moe-slap him back of the head, if'n he doesn't stay shut like I told him. And follow-up with the two-finger eyeprong for good measure.

quote:JPG or GIF?

See the Third Commandment above.

quote:Let's rephrase this, if there are going to be real screenshots in there, can't anyone just pick out 2 screenshots that stand out of the rest, and see that those are the real screenshots?

That's an interesting question, isn't it? Consider that we may or may not throw in the real screenshots, and not say either way. It is possible that nobody is quite clever enough to pull off a fake that convinces anyone to vote it "real". In that case, no rank points would be awarded from the second poll, and just the first poll would matter. But it seems like it would be quite impressive if you could get some people to vote for your fake, especially if the Caravel shots are added as fake entries.

quote:[ Note to Erik: If I am giving too much away, tell me and I will edit this e-mail. ]

quote:wackhead_uk wrote:
I'm woprking on mine now...I think you'll find that it is very realistic!

Excellent! A serious contender that wastes no time. I understand that Nillo is also devising something.

Anybody else planning to enter?

If people feel like adding silly entries just for fun, without worrying about winning, these are also appreciated. And remember, if you've never entered a contest before and submit an entry, you'll automatically pick up the rookie bonus.

quote:ErikH2000 wrote:
3. You may enter one or more screenshots by sending them to erikh@caravelgames.net. Screenshots may be in png, gif, bmp, or jpg format. Send one screenshot per e-mail message and in the subject give an identifying name for the screenshot, i.e. "Screenshot #1".

quote:wackhead_uk wrote:
Can we enter more than 1? I would like to enter a...really good one.

Certainly!

Because each entry is given a separate rating in the 1st poll, making extra entries shouldn't reduce your chances of winning. However, if you're trying for points in the 2nd poll, you'd have to be careful for a "weak link" entry that would give away other entries that have a better chance of winning. For example, if you used the same background graphic in two screenshots, people could guess they were both authored by the same person. If one of the two screenshots looked fake, it could destroy the credibility of the other.

It takes a long time to update the Lite Brite pegs after each move. When I die on a room, it usually takes me a half hour to redo the pegs just to get back to the room start.

-Erik

In user-interface research parlance, I believe this is known as a "Wizard of Oz" study, where you don't have a working prototype yet, but you can create a mock-up to see if what you have in mind would work well with the users.

("Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.")

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I was charged with conspiracy to commit jay-walking, and accessory to changing lanes without signaling after the fact .

I will probably enter in this competition. However, I ask you to reconsider the rule about finding out everything like the resolution by ourselves. If there are some things that have been officially announced, it would IMO be best to repeat them here. I would hate to spend a lot of time on making the screenshot, only to then find out that I missed some vital information that was in a misleadingly titled thread from four months ago.

quote:Tim wrote:
Let's assume that I do not know anything about the screen in the new DROD, is there anything one need to adhere to?

Size of the picture (640x480)?
Is it still 38x32?
Is the rest of the layout of the screen the same?

You have to figure these things out from reading old posts, asking other forum members, or just guessing. And you could make up some stuff too, I think. There won't be any authoritative answers unless maybe Crampy leaks something. Which is why I have my hand at the ready to Moe-slap him back of the head, if'n he doesn't stay shut like I told him. And follow-up with the two-finger eyeprong for good measure.

The game now runs at 40x25.
The board is 2x2 - it was difficult building rooms, but immensily satisfying.
The screen is now 3D, and will require one of those new fangled 3d monitors, or possibly a Virtual Boy.

Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop!

(On a more disappointed note, I'm sad I can't enter this contest. I would have had so much fun doing a screenshot mock-up again.)

Matt

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What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

quote:Mikko wrote:
I will probably enter in this competition. However, I ask you to reconsider the rule about finding out everything like the resolution by ourselves. If there are some things that have been officially announced, it would IMO be best to repeat them here. I would hate to spend a lot of time on making the screenshot, only to then find out that I missed some vital information that was in a misleadingly titled thread from four months ago.

I don't think it helps the contest by giving out more official information about JtRH. It would bring up the accuracy of the screenshots in general, but that isn't very important in and of itself. I really think there has been very little said from the Caravel team, and 95% of the posts out there are just speculation. More than once somebody has guessed successfully on things that were actually in the game, so I think it is possible to use intuition and come up with ideas that are likely to go into the game, without really knowing. Some people are really pretty good at it.

As for rooting out that remaining 5% of official info, I suggest people talk about it on the forum. Maybe post links to older topics. I also know there are a number of people that won't be entering because they aren't so good at manipulating images with a paint program. You might consider teaming up with one of these people and you can plan out in private what will be in the screenshots. The other person might contribute insights from research and creative speculation.

I'll change the rules a bit to not allow discussion of entries during the voting period. This way if one very knowledgable forumite finds an objective flaw in a screenshot, he won't be able to share it with less-knowledgable voters who would otherwise think the entry was real.